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Tuesday, January 14, 2003 |
Bushwhacked The worldwide turmoil caused by President Bush's policies goes not exactly unreported, but entirely de-emphasised. Guardian writers are inundated by emails from Americans asking plaintively why their own papers never print what is in these columns. In the American press, day after day, the White House controls the agenda. The supposedly liberal American press has become a dog that never bites, hardly barks, but really loves rolling over and having its tummy tickled. [Daypop Top 40]
5:19:33 PM 
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U.S. Decision On Iraq Has Puzzling Past Almost as a footnote, the document also directed the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq, senior administration officials said. The previously undisclosed Iraq directive is characteristic of an internal decision-making process that has been obscured from public view. [Daypop Top 40]
5:16:18 PM
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Anti-copying technology is *not* anti-piracy technology. Dan Gillmor's column yesterday sounds a note of hope -- after seeing all the very cool devices on the floor at CES, devices that pay "lip service to the cartel's wish for absolute control over how copyrighted material may be used," he concludes that, "tomorrow is not on the side of the copyright control freaks." I share some of his optimism, but, as I wrote to him:
A good point to reflect on is that since any anti-copying tech can be broken by technically sophisticated users (if by no other means than by redigitizing the cleartext output from analog AV outputs), anti-copying measures *can't* stop "piracy." These measures won't slow down organized gangs of Ukranian counterfeiters, or even college dormnet traders. The *only* people these measures are proof against is average, non-sharing users. IOW, these measures only effect legit uses -- like making a copy for the car, cottage or kids' room -- and have no effect on sharing.
What shakes out of this is that the nods made by CE companies to Hollywood are still supremely anti-customer. They will *not* slow down "piracy," but they will enforce the entertainment companies' desire to force their honest users to buy the same product again and again, rather than format- or space-shifting.
[Boing Boing Blog]
5:12:51 PM
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The Trent Lotte. Kramerbooks, a bookstore/eatery just off Dupont Circle in Washington DC, is selling a new coffee drink, the Trent Lotte: A glass of black coffee, and a
glass of steamed milk, in separate but equal portions. [Boing Boing Blog]
5:09:21 PM
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Drug-war ads' hidden meaning. David Weinberger has hilariously deconstructed a drug=terrorism PSA, uncovering its roots as a parable for Bush the Elder's stern oversight of the coked-up Prez.
...we see a young-ish businessman having a meal in a fancy restaurant with another businessman in the next generation up. The young man thinks the relationship between drugs and terrorism is "very complex." The older man sighs Gore-ishly and lowers his eyelids in exasperation, as if he's talking to a slow-witted child. He patiently explains in one-syllable words how drugs and terrorism are connected. The younger man gets a Jeff Spicoli look as he processes the information and then concedes defeat...
Rich, callow, shallow, stupid, drug-using young businessman? Hmm, I wonder who that could be. And he's being advised by a man his father's age who patiently explains what his position should be? Lemme think, lemme think! And the young man changes his mind on an issue of international importance within 5 seconds?
[Boing Boing Blog]
5:05:00 PM
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The RIAA May Have Already Hacked Your PC. The RIAA is preparing to infect MP3 files in order to audit and eventually disable file swapping, according to a startling claim by the "Gobbles" hacker group. Up to 95 percent of machines may already be infected. [eWEEK]
4:53:49 PM
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© Copyright 2003 Michael Alderete.
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